The last year was the safest ever recorded in the history of commercial air travel. According to Dutch consulting firm To 70 and the Aviation Safety Network, 2017 ended with a total of zero deaths from air travel accidents. According to Reuters, a declining number of fatalities have also been observed in the past two decades.

“It was the safest year of aviation,” said To 70 consultant Adrian Young. The company also notes that the fatal crash rate for large commercial flights is 0.06 per million flights – or, in other words, a fatal accident for every 16 million flights.

Without a record of deaths on commercial flights, the Aviation Safety Network pointed out that 2017 was “the safest year in history, both for the number of fatal accidents and for fatalities.” Despite this, the year still ended with a total of 10 fatal plane crashes, including cargo planes, which resulted in 44 deaths on board and 35 fatalities on the ground.

That number includes 12 people killed on December 31, when a plane belonging to the airline Nature Air crashed minutes after takeoff in a mountainous area of ​​the city of Punta Islita, Costa Rica.

For aviation experts the balance of 2017 should be celebrated. In 2016, for example, there were 16 accidents involving airlines and a total of 303 deaths. More than a decade before, in 2005, the number of deaths aboard commercial flights around the world was over one thousand.

Source: Panrotas / Reuters
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